Taken
by swimmersflip123
Summary: A one-shot about Prince Charming and Snow's happy ending, at least until the curse came along.


**AN: This is my first attempt at writing for Once Upon A Time. Sorry for any and all mistakes.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Once Upon A TIme, or any characters of plot ideas ect.**

**Please read and reveiw!**

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><p>He loves the way she smiles and laughs too much for a royal.<p>

He often returns to their bedchamber anxious and stressed, for he was unused to being a king.

"You worry too much." She would tease him, and kiss the wrinkles between his eyebrows. "Pretty soon, you'll go bald."

"Will you still love me when I do?" He would reply, half playing along and half serious. She'd giggle.

"Well that depends."

"Funny, Snow." He would kiss her and they would fall onto the bed…

She was different. He know that, and it scares him sometimes. He could woo almost any courtier, flirt with any commoner, and never think twice about it. But with Snow, everything normal was shot to hell.

So perhaps that why he loves her so damn much. Every day is an adventure, crazy and capricious. But no matter how fierce and stubborn she was being, he could always tell what was beneath that.

She was afraid of loving, unused to it. Her stepmother had trampled the idea of true love for Snow, and when she found it, it contradicted everything she had learned.

But he would change that.

She was sweet, intelligent, witty, and most of all, kind. It was not uncommon to see her freeing mice from the kitchen's traps and releasing them in the garden. The cook hated this, but he rarely got up early enough to see Snow do so. The birds sang to her, the butterflies chiming their whispers in her ear.

He was standing on their bedroom balcony one evening, watching the sun set.

"The royal horsemen hate me." She declared as she flounced over to stand next to him.

"Hm?" James asked, distracted by her attire- one of his shirts that fell around her thighs.

"The royal horsemen are jealous of me because their own mounts like me better than they like them." She said again, and James wrapped his arms around her middle. She leaned into him.

"Frankly, Snow, I don't think that's what they are jealous of." He murmured against her hair. She twisted around to face him, putting her arms around his neck.

"Oh? Why's that?" She said coyly.

"Because you are truthfully, the most wonderful women they'll ever meet."

Snow put on a mock-deliberating face, one of James's favorites.

"Well, that's too bad for them." She leaned her forehead against his and smiled. "I'm taken."

He leaned in for a kiss, but Snow danced away, sashaying into the chamber.

"Tease." James muttered and strode after her.

An angry Snow was bad news: only James could calm her then. But a pregnant Snow? That was even worse.

He remembers when she told him:

She was in one of her moods that day, a long winter day with gray clouds looming overhead threateningly. Everyone fought to stay out of her way: the normally docile queen would not be calmed even by her husband.

She stormed into the stables, grabbed her horse (not bothering with a saddle) and shouted to no one in particular that she was going for a ride.

When she didn't return for dinner, James became anxious. When the moon and the stars came out, he became frantic.

"Where is she?" He growled as he barged into the stable and saw her missing horse. The poor stable boy shrugged and James grabbed mount, throwing a bridle and saddle on.

He rode through the woods, looking and looking for his wife.

"Snow?" He called, but the trees and the rocks and the wind made no reply.

"Snow White!" He shouted, slowing the horse to a halt and listening around him.

To his left, he heard a small sob from the brushes. James dismounted his horse and treaded softly to the brush.

His petite wife was kneeling in the moss, clutching her stomach and rocking back and forth slowly. Tears streamed down her face and soft weeping noises escaped her lips.

"Snow, love, what's wrong?" He was at her side in a second, one hand snaking around her waist and the other darting to the hilt of his sword, ready to fight of the invisible enemy.

"I… James…" She looked at him. "Help me, James."

"What is it?" He pleaded in a low voice. "What's wrong? Snow, please look at me."

She drew in a shaky breath and stared at James through wet eyes.

"I'm pregnant."

"What? Snow! That's fantastic!"

"No! No it's not!" she screamed at him and hid her head in his shoulders, crying. He threw his arms around her.

"Why are you so afraid?" He whispered into her hair. "I told you, I won't let your stepmother hurt you."

"It's not her." She cried. " I mean, it is her, but most of all it's me."

James smiled and smoothed her hair, knowing what to do now.

"Snow White." He said to her, looking her in her wide, scared eyes. "I can promise you, you will be the most wonderful, caring, loving mother any child will ever have. It doesn't matter that you didn't have a normal upbringing. You are an amazing person, and will make an even more amazing mother."

"Really?" She sniffed. James nodded.

She smiled to herself now.

"What?" He asked.

"We're going to have a baby." She said in wonder. And all around them, snow began to fall.

Snow was not made for pregnancy. She was small and delicate, she did not handle nausea well (in fact, she didn't handle it at all), and her already fiery temper was even worse. Not even James could placate her now.

She loved the idea of being a mother though. She really, really loved it.

It was a shame she never got to raise her daughter.

He loves her, more than anything. It broke his heart to have to leave her the night the curse struck. But as he lay on the floor of that room, he knew when she found him. In his mind, he was already scolding her for getting out of bed. In his mind, she laughed and smiled, kissing him while their child giggled in her arms.

He knows one day they'll get a happy ending. They have to. Love like theirs wasn't born and killed by one curse. The universe could not keep them apart.

And so he'll find her, he thinks to himself as they spiral into another world. He'll find her, where ever they go.

He promises.


End file.
